Float-rail lock.



G. W. OLEMMONS.

FLOAT RAIL LOOK. APPLICATION FILED AUG. 30, 1911.

1,028,8 1 O, Patented June 4,1912,

GEORGE STATES PggEN'r orrron.

W. CLEMMONS, OF SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR 0F ONE-THIRD TO CHARLES 1VL CARI-IART, OF HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY, AND ONE-THIRD 'I'O EDGAR I HENNEGER, OF WEST NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY.

FLOAT-RAIL LOOK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

- Patented June 4, 1912.

Application filed August 30, 1911. Serial No. 646,953.

resident of Scranton, in the county of Lack-' awanna and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and Improved Float-Rail Look, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to a means for looking a car float to a floating bridge.

' An object of my invention is to provide a lock which will maintain the tracks on the float and the tracks. on the bridge in alinement, but will, at the same time, permit a slight play between the float and the bridge.

A further object of my invention is to provide a lock simple in construction, which may be readily affixed to the rails on the bridge or wharf, and which may be quickly and securely attached to the rails on a car float.

I attain the above outlined objects by pivoting a yoke to a rail on the bridge or wharf, which yoke has its free opposite end adapted to engage an elongated slot in a correspondingly alined rail on the float.

WVith the above and other objects in view as will more fully hereinafter appear, the present invention consists in certain novel details of construction and arrangement of parts hereinafter fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings and more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures, and in which- Figure 1 is a plan view looking down upon the adjacent meeting ends of contacting rails showing a preferred embodiment of my form of lock; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same on the side opposite the yoke; and Fig. 8 is a perspective view of a bridge and float showing a railroad track located in position thereon.

While the invention is shown with reference to a lock for each rail, it is to be understood that but one pair of locks is necessary to each bridge and float, irrespective of the number of tracks disposed on said bridge and float, it having been found that but one pair of locks is necessary to hold the float to the bridge, and in the detail description reference will be made to but one rail, it being understood that the construction is duplicated on as many rails as required.

In Fig. 3 I have shown a wharf or bridge A carrying a pair of car rails B, and in alinement with the rails B are disposed rails C, which latter rails are carried on a car float or ferry-boat D. The outer end 4 of each of the rails B has a circular aperture 5 in its web 6, a short distance from the end 1. Insertible into this aperture 5, is a cylindrical shank 7 forming one leg of a substantially U-shaped yoke 8. This yoke is permanently and pivotallv held in the rail' B by means of a cotter pin 9 extending through the shank 7 and separated from the web 6 by means of a washer 10. The crotch 11 of the yoke 8 extends beyond the edge of the lower flange 12, so that the flange will not interfere with the swinging of the yoke 8. Both legs of the yoke 8' are similarly constructed, the shank 13 corresponding to the shank 7 extending through an elongated slot 14 positioned in the web 15 of the rail C. A cotter pin 16 extends through the shank 13 and is constructed to be readily removed therefrom, which shank bears on a slidable plate 17, said plate being of a length sufiicient to cover the slot 14 in alll positions of the shank 13' within said s ot.

It will be seen that the plate 17 bears upon the web 15, thereby permitting relative movement between the track B carried by the bridge and the track G-carried by the float as the float rises and falls with the tide and Waves.

While a preferred embodiment of the in vention has been described, it is to be understood that many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof. It is intended that all matters contained herein in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings, shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense. It is also to be understood that the languageused in the given any narrower construction than the prior art demands, and that materials, sizes and relativities of parts are non-essential, except as called for in the claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent: i

1. In combination with a rail on a wharf or bridge and a rail on a car float, a U-shaped yoke having one leg fixedly provided in the web of one rail and its other leg slidably pivoted in the Web of the other rail thereby maintaining said rails in alinement and permitting a limited play between them.

2. In combination, two rails disposed sub-,

stantially in the same line, one of said rails having a circular aperture in one end, the other of said rallshavmg an elongated slot therein, a yoke having a pair of shanks, one i of said shanks rotatably mounted in said ciroular aperture and the other of said shanks slidably mounted in said slot, and means name to this specification in the shank, a key inserted transversely through each of said shanks, a Washer carried by one of said shanks, and a relatively long bearing plate carried by the other of said shanks,

said long plate adapted to bear on the web of one of the rails, to prevent the withdrawal of a shank through the elongated slot in the web through which said shank extends.

In testimony whereof I have signed my presence of two subscribing witnesses.

GEORGE W. OLEMMONS.

WVitnesses HENRY D. BEHRENS, CHARLES M. CARHART.

: Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of latents,

Washington, D. C. 

